The effectiveness of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services jeopardized by the European Court of Justice - Annotations on the judgment in C-525/12

In Case C-525/12 the European Court of Justice concludes that cost recovery for water services as outlined in Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive is only one of the instruments for Member States to strive for a rational water use. It furthermore concludes that the WFD environmental objectives not necessarily imply that cost recovery should be applicable to all water-related activities mentioned in Article 2 (38) WFD. In this underlying contribution a number of critical remarks to this judgment are provided. In view of the authors, the European Court of Justice reduces the effectivity of the cost recovery principle too rigorously by reducing the principle of cost recovery for water services to a practically voluntary tool for Member States.